Is hepatitis C 'cured'?

WASHINGTON, May 21 (UPI) -- Peginterferon or peginterferon plus ribavirin will cure hepatitis C, say researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

The team led a study on the effectiveness of pegylated interferon alfa-2a -- sold as Roche's Pegasys -- that involved more than 1,000 patients with HCV or HCV and HIV at 40 locations around the world.

All of them were treated with either peginterferon or a combination of peginterferon and ribavirin. When they were tested six months later, 997 had no hepatitis C in their blood.

When these 997 people were tested again, seven years after treatment, 99 percent still had no evidence of the virus. It has not been determined if the eight patients who tested HCV-positive at an average of two years following the treatment experienced a relapse or were reinfected.

Hepatitis C is a blood-borne viral infection of the liver and a leading cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer. There are 4.1 million Americans infected with hepatitis C, and while new infections have declined from an average of 240,000 in the 1980s to about 26,000 in 2004, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates the number of hepatitis C-related deaths could increase to 38,000 annually by 2010, surpassing deaths from HIV/AIDS.

The research was presented this week at the 38th annual Digestive Disease Week conference in Washington.